


Come Away With Me, And I'll Write You A Song

by Marvinetta



Category: Terra Nova (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-11
Updated: 2011-12-11
Packaged: 2017-10-27 05:33:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/292142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvinetta/pseuds/Marvinetta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I filled my own prompt from the November post. Wash and Reynolds get stuck OTG with him injured, and Wash sings to him while she tries to keep him alive, and somehow the rescue party gets to listen in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come Away With Me, And I'll Write You A Song

The bleeding was finally under control, but Reynolds' breathing was shallow and his skin was starting to feel clammy. Hugging him tighter to her chest, Wash listened as the Slashers outside the communications outpost tried to find a way in. The door wouldn't hold forever against that many, not when they knew dinner was just a few more tries away. There were only a few charges left on her pistol, and she tightened her grip on the handle.

“Lieutenant?” Reynolds sounded weak, but she was happy to hear he was still conscious. “They're going to get in.”

“Don't worry about it.” Tightening her grip around his chest, she nudged his head with her chin. “You focus on not bleeding to death. Maddy Shannon won't be happy with us if you die.”

“I'm sorry.” He tried to raise his arm, and Wash gave him another squeeze. He took the hint and went still.

“Stop talking, soldier, unless it's something useful.” Using her foot, Wash nudged the medkit closer. She had to put the gun down to grab more gauze.

“I have a stupid question. If that's allowed.” His words were tinged with a hiss of pain as Wash applied more gauze to his wound.

“No such thing as a stupid question.”

“Would you sing to me? I don't want the last thing I hear to be those fucking lizards.”

\- - - -

“What do you mean you lost contact with them” Guzman was yelling at a young corporal as Taylor walked into the command center.

“What's going on?” Everyone jumped a little at his sudden appearance.

“We've apparently lost contact with Lieutenant Washington and Corporal Reynolds. Last transmission was a distress call from a communication outpost near their convoy route.” Guzman gave the report and pointed to the map. “The convoy got hit by Sixers, but while they were transferring goods, Slashers attacked. Apparently there's a nest nearby and one of us riled them up. The Slashers seemed content to chase the Sixers off, since they're on foot but somehow Reynolds and Washington got lost in the scuffle. I told the convoy to get to safe ground, regroup, and wait for back up.”

“Why aren't we talking to that comm outpost?” Looking over all the information, Taylor found himself nodding at how it was being handled, despite the urge to punch the glass.

“We got the initial distress transmission, and then it went dark. Best guess is either Sixers or Slashers took out the tower.” The kid at the communications desk barely looked old enough to shave. “I'm trying to bounce some signals around from the rover the Lieutenant abandoned nearby to at least get a listen in.”

“Let me know when you do, I want to know what we're going up against.” Turning to leave Taylor changed his mind. “Was it a standard distress call from the outpost computer, or one from the Lieutenant?”

“From the Lieutenant, sir.” The Corporal looked to Guzman who nodded. He hit a button and the play back started.

 _“We need a med-evac at comm outpost 4. Use extreme caution-”_ Wash's voice was almost drowned out by the banging of the security door and the screeching noise of hungry dinosaurs. After the abrupt end to the transmission, Taylor unclenched his jaw with extreme effort and headed out of the command center. The Calvary was heading out in ten, and he was damn sure riding with them.

\- - - -

“You're the one who needs to stay awake, Reynolds. Maybe you should sing to me.” Wash dug in the med kit for the steri-foam canister.

“If I could muster up the energy I would, might even scare the Slashers off.” His body shook with laughter, but no sound came out. “Maybe you could teach me some of those old love songs? The ones we hear you singing when you think no one's around. I could sing it to Maddy when we get back.”

“Spying on me? That'll get you trench digging duty.” Finally finding the small canister, Wash hit her head against the wall. It was punctured. “Fucking lizards. What blood type are you, Reynolds?”

“AB positive.”

“Look at you being helpful without knowing it.” Wash dug around in the bag until she found the blood transfusion kit, thankfully unharmed. “You're about to get a dose of O positive to make sure you don't croak before I can teach you some good shit to serenade Miss Shannon with.”

“If you keep me alive and help me make her swoon, we'll name a kid after you.” Reynolds laughed again, but started coughing.

“You still freaked out by needles, soldier?” Wash asked, shifting Reynolds around so she could rest him on the concrete floor. His forehead was beaded with sweat and tension lines. “I can't put you under while I put some old fashioned stitches in this gash. You're going to have to just hold on, okay?”

“I'll try not to hurl on you again, ma'am.” His eyelids fluttered closed.

\- - - -

“Sir, we've got good news, more good news, and some bad news.” Guzman's voice crackled on the comm.

“Start with the bad and work towards the best.” Taylor yelled to be heard over the roar of the rover's engine. It was loaded down with more guns and extra bodies. Dr Shannon was sitting in the back with her supplies, looking incredibly out of place.

“The Slashers are definitely still in the area of the comm outpost, but we know that because I managed to hack into the Lieutenant's rover and we can hear what's going on outside. The door is still closed from what we can hear.” There was a crackle and then his voice came back. “And Corporal Brown here says in another ten we'll have ears inside the comm outpost.”

“What do you mean by just ears?” Thankfully the yelling hid how annoyed he was, and Taylor tightened his grip on his rifle. Jim had refused to let him drive in his 'agitated state'. Taylor didn't know what pissed him off more; that Jim was a bad driver, or that he could see how upset Taylor was.

“The Slashers seem to have destroyed a good portion of the external workings of the outpost. Ears is all we'll have until some stuff can be repaired on site. Check in again in 10 clicks.”

\- - - -

“There, now just don't look at it.” Wash wrapped a piece of tape around Reynolds' arm to hide the IV. Tucking her own arm out of sight, she felt Reynolds forehead with her free hand. He wasn't as clammy, but he still felt unhealthy. “You still with me?”

“Yes'm.” Reynolds shivered. He'd passed out twice while Wash had stitched the wound closed, while still leaving a bit for drainage. It was a nasty hole, and without real medical care he wouldn't last much longer, even with the blood donation. She pulled him into a sitting position with his back against her chest. His head was a dead weight against her shoulder.

Pulling a blanket around them, Wash leaned her head against the wall and rubbed the grip on her pistol. The noises outside were dying down, but the Slashers were clearly still trying to figure out how to get in. She could hear them scrambling across the roof and scratching at the walls. The smell of blood was probably driving them into a frenzy.

“You said you'd sing to me.” Reynolds' voice was weak, but he was trying to sound cheerful. “And I didn't hurl on you, so I get a reward.”

“Sure thing, soldier. One sappy song coming up.” They both jumped as a particularly loud thud came from the main door. Putting the gun on top of the blanket, Wash stared at the shuddering door and scrambled to come up with a song.

 _“I say I'll move the mountains. And I'll move the mountains, if he wants them out of the way. Crazy, he calls me. Sure, I'm crazy. Crazy in love, I say.”_

\- - - -

“Sir, I'm not entirely certain how, but Brown was able to sort of hack into Reynolds' comm a minute ago.” Guzman's voice sounded odd.

“What do you mean sort of?” Taylor was leaning against the rover, waiting for the convoy to finish getting checked over the doctor so they could head towards the comm outpost.

“Well we aren't certain yet if we're hearing what's inside the outpost, or some music one of them had stored on their tags. Hold on, I'll patch you in.” Guzman mumbled something to Brown and Taylor listened intently. Everyone else was straining to listen on their own radios.

 _“I can't believe it. It's hard to conceive it. That you'd turn away romance. Are you pretending? Looks like the ending, unless I could have one more chance to prove, dear, my life's a wreck you're making. You know that I'm yours, for just the taking, I'd gladly surrender. Body and soul.”_

 _“It sounds depressing.”_ Everyone breathed a small sigh of relief at Reynold's voice as the singing ended.

 _“Well then you didn't listen to the words, dumb ass.”_ Wash's rough laughter made the knot in Taylor's stomach loosen. _“The two before that weren't depressing either.”_

 _“They all sounded depressing. I wanted a love song.”_ Reynolds made a pained sound.

 _“If you puke on me, I'm not singing anything at all. And they're all love songs. It's classic jazz, been popular for 200 years. We need to broaden your musical tastes.”_

 _“If I make it out of here, I'll listen to all your depressing music, I promise.”_

\- - - -

“Most of the songs I know are jazz, Reynolds. It's all my grandmother listened to when I was kid. She had this antique record player and she'd play the albums, and talk about the past. It's a family thing, I guess. Someone was always singing in my house, no matter how bad things got.” Wash checked the IV line to make sure she didn't weaken herself too much. “I guess I know a few more.”

“Not a depressing one?” Reynolds' voice was still weak, but she was glad he was still talking at all. “You're supposed to be inspiring me to live.”

“Not a depressing one, I promise. I think you'll like this one. It's not jazz.” Wash pulled him closer as his shivering got worse. _“For you, there'll be no more crying. For you, the sun will be shining. And I feel that when I'm with, it's alright. I know it's right.”_

\- - - -

With Wash's love song as haunting background music, everyone moved into the woods towards the comm post. Now that they were close, they could hear the Slashers attacking the metal walls. The sudden stop in singing, followed by a loud crash and a gunshot, spurred everyone into motion.

Taylor let everyone else aim at the dinosaurs, he ran straight for the door of the outpost. A Slasher had busted part way through, and the gunshot hadn't killed it. It's friends were tearing at it, like sharks in a feeding frenzy.

“Wash?” Taylor yelled, shooting into the mass of writhing dinosaurs. They scattered. He heard her answer more so over the comms than through the damaged door.

“We're in here, sir. Please tell me you have the doctor with you.”

“Doc Shannon is here, you two hold on.” Taylor tugged at the now dead Slasher, and with Jim's help they got it out of the way. Before they could call out, Elizabeth was shoving her bag into the door and crawling through. “Damnit, woman, there's a loaded gun in there with a trigger happy Lieutenant.”

“I'm fine, get the stretcher ready and get that door open.” Elizabeth's voice got muffled, and then got picked up on the comm. “I didn't know you could sing, Lieutenant. You have a beautiful voice.”

“Guess everyone's gonna know now. That'll teach me to do a favor for a man who claims he's gonna die.” Wash grunted in pain and then started rattling off things she'd done to Reynolds.

Taylor watched as his men pried the broken door off, and tried to ignore all the blood on the floor. Not all of it belonged to the dinosaur.

\- - - -

Wash was silent on the ride back to the colony. She had arm twisted back behind her seat to keep Reynolds' hand in a vice grip. She was staring silently out the window into the jungle, had been since being stitched up and packed into the rover. Her pant leg had been cut away, revealing a nasty gash down her thigh that was now sealed with steri-foam and properly bandaged. Elizabeth had seen red, railing at the Lieutenant for not even noticing, and for doing a blood transfusion with an untreated injury. Taylor had left the small outpost room at that point, because he had been sorely tempted to yell at his Lieutenant for it as well.

“You could have died, too.” Taylor waited as long as he could before putting a finger to her knee, just below the bandage. He kept his voice low, mindful of Reynolds sleeping nearby.

“I'm not sorry, sir.” Wash didn't stop looking out the window. Her voice was hollow.

“How come you've never sang depressing love songs to me when patching me up?” Changing tactics, he tapped her on her good leg, trying to get her to look at him. For some reason she wouldn't make eye contact, and it bothered him more than it should.

“I have, sir.” She shifted, edging her legs away from him. “I think you've always passed out by that point, though.”

“Well I don't think it's fair to keep a voice as pretty as yours on hold until someone's dying.” He pulled his hand away and searched her face.

“I'll try to remember that, sir.” The emotionless quality of her voice wasn't natural, and he wanted to fix it.

“Stop 'sir'ing me and look at me.” He laced it his words with enough authority that she lowered her head, and then finally looked at him. She looked about ready to pass out from stress and exhaustion, and probably whatever drugs the Doctor had given her.

“I know you're angry. I won't get caught off guard like that again. Maybe I'm getting sloppy, and for that I apologize.” She nodded at the end of her speech and went back to looking out the window.

With a rover full of people listening in, Taylor dropped the subject.

\- - - -

Wash realized how bad she looked when Maddy Shannon nearly passed out at the sight of her. Looking down at herself as Jim helped her out of the rover, she realized she had dried blood from her neck, down the entire front of her shirt, and down the pant leg that was still intact. The bandage on her injured thigh was oddly pristine before giving away to more dried blood on her bare leg. She wondered if anyone had gathered up the pile of armor in the outpost from where Wash had tossed it while doctoring Reynolds. Replacing two sets of armor was going to be a pain if they hadn't.

“Are you okay? Is Mark alive?” Maddy slipped under Wash's other arm and took more of her weight.

“Yes, and yes.” Jim answered before Wash could. “I've got Wash, they're unloading Reynolds now. Go hover, but don't get in the way.”

“Thanks.” Wash whispered as Jim helped her limp towards the hospital. She could see the horrified looks on people's faces. “I have the urge to do a beauty queen wave, everyone's staring.”

“Well, you are a sight.” Jim laughed and held her steady as Reynolds' stretcher went past. Squeezing her hand, Jim urged her on after them. He was being nice and letting her set the pace. “I'm honestly surprised you're still awake, let alone walking.”

“In case you haven't heard, I'm a bit a stubborn.” Wash didn't fight as a nurse rushed out and offered more support. When Jim shifted to take more of her weight, Wash issued a quiet warning. “I'm walking in there. I'll shoot anyone who tries to carry me.”

“Noted.” Both Jim and the nurse answered at the same time. Neither complained about the slow pace or tried to speed her up.

Despite complaints, Wash wanted to stop by Reynolds' bed and make sure he was still alive. Satisfied she'd kept him alive, she finally let Doctor Shannon lead her to a nearby bed. By the time she reached it she'd run out of steam. Ignoring everyone, Wash crawled on it, rolled on to her good side, and passed out.

It was dark when she woke up. She'd been rolled onto her back, and she was groggy from pain medication. Taylor was half in the curtain to her little area, half out, talking to someone. Nodding, he came in and pulled the curtain closed. When he noticed she was awake, he relaxed his face into a neutral expression and came to stand next to the bed.

“Thanks for waiting to lecture me. I wasn't up to it in the rover.” Wash gave him a weak smile. He didn't return it.

“I wasn't trying to lecture you.” He tapped at the edge of her bed and stared at her. “You scared the shit out of me today.”

“I didn't plan to.” Reaching out, Wash stilled his fingers with her own. “Is Reynolds still doing okay?”

“You did a hell of a job keeping him alive. Didn't leave a lot of work for the Doc to do. No one's surprised, except for maybe Doc Shannon, but she doesn't know you that well yet.” Taylor rotated his hand so Wash's fingers were resting in his palm. After a moment he tentatively curled his fingers around hers. “There was so much blood in that room.”

“Did you get our body armor while you were there?” Wash mentally kicked herself, and blamed the pain medication. Shaking her head she gave him an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Doc gave me something, I'm a bit out of it.”

“It's alright.” Taylor chuckled and his body relaxed a bit. He tightened his grip on her hand. “But yes, I grabbed it all. I knew you'd make a fuss if we left it behind.”

“I don't fuss.”

“Yeah, you do. But it's part of your charm.” Taylor gave her a look she couldn't decipher before moving her hand back up to the blanket. He squeezed her fingers once before slowly pulling his hand away. “You get some rest. Doc's kicking everyone out for the night.”

“I'll try not to cause trouble while you're gone.” She waited until he was almost out of the curtain before calling him back. “Sir, how much did you all hear?”

“We tuned in during Sarah Vaughan, and the station was so good we stayed around for the Fleetwood Mac. Don't forget you threatened to make Reynolds listen to all your sad music. He's hospital bound for a few days so he's an easy target.” Taylor smiled at her and she shook her head. His smile faded and he gave her a sad look. “And I was serious Wash: you shouldn't save your singing for when a man's dying. Some of us might like to hear it when we can have the chance to appreciate it. And maybe even give you a reason a sing a happier song for a change.”

“I'll take it under advisement,” she whispered as the curtain swung closed. She wasn't sure if he'd heard.

**Author's Note:**

> If you'd like to hear the songs I used, here are some links:  
> [ "Crazy He Calls Me" Billie Holiday (recently made famous by Fallout 3 )](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mitLcbHHz8)  
> [ "Body and Soul" Sarah Vaughan (recently made famous by Tony Bennet and Amy Winehouse as a duet)"](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuo1aju4JnY )  
> [ "Songbird" Fleetwood Mac, as covered by Naya Rivera from Glee ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0bYmsu8XD4 )
> 
> And the title come from [ "Come Away With Me" Norah Jones](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRHTXFIKfFs)


End file.
